1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic tracking control apparatus for a camera apparatus having the function of panning and/or tilting and the function of automatically tracking a specific object as the object to be tracked. The present invention also relates to an automatic tracking camera system having the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are cameras equipped with electric camera platform with which the camera can be swung (or panned and tilted). An operation unit is coupled to such a camera equipped with electric camera platform by cable or wireless connection to allow remote operation of the camera platform and the camera. An operator observes the image displayed on a monitor screen and operates the operation unit to control the camera and the camera platform.
In recent years, automatic tracking camera systems using image recognition technology in a camera with electric camera platform to track an object have been developed. In such systems, when automatic tracking is enabled, the pan/tilt operation of the camera platform is performed in such a way that the image of the object to be tracked is located at a designated position on the monitor screen.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H05-028923 teaches to obtain the difference between the coordinates of the center of the monitor and the coordinates of the position of an object and to control the pan and tilt angles of a rotary table in such a way as to shift the object to the center of the image so that the object is displayed at the center of the monitor screen. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-096292 discloses means for replacing a template of the object to be tracked by an operation unit during tracking and for shifting a new object to the center of the image.
When a reporter or announcer is to be automatically tracked in shooting in a TV station, it is sometimes desired during tracking to change the initially set position at which the object is to be displayed in the image. For example, when the subject person is holding a flip board or article, it might be desired to locate the flip board or article at the center of the image or to locate the person in, for example, the rightmost or leftmost region of the image.
However, in the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H05-028923, the object is controlled to be output (or displayed) at substantially the center of the image after the tracking is started, and the position in the image at which the object is output cannot be changed arbitrarily after the tracking is started.
In the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-096292, although the object to be tracked can be changed during tracking by replacing the template with a new one, the object cannot be shifted to a desired position in the image.